Turtle Beach Ear Force PX4 for PlayStation 4 Review

The best accessory you can own as a console owner is a great headset that takes your offline and online gaming experiences to the next level. Some may argue that a surround sound system is just as good, but I’d argue that having the sound over your ears is a lot more advantageous depending on how competitive of a gamer you are. So, when Turtle Beach hooked us up to review their Ear Force PX4 headset for PlayStation 4 (PS3, PC, and Xbox 360), I was excited to see just how much of a difference this headset would have on my experience and my multiplayer capabilities.

The Ear Force PX4 comes packaged in a sturdy, well-designed box and everything is neatly tucked away. It doesn’t have the extravagance of an Astro headset’s carrying compartment, but it’s good enough. Inside the box is all of the necessary wires and adapters you need to make your headset work with PlayStation 4. Fortunately, the setup is extremely easy and takes no time at all. You simply plug the wireless receiver into the Optical Out in the back of your PlayStation 4 and then insert the USB in to the front of the console. Once this is done, you pair it with the headset and plug the headset into your DualShock 4 with the included wire. That’s it. It should work immediately. This may sound odd, because on PlayStation 3 you often had to activate a device in the accessory settings, but this time around the activation is immediate with no secondary steps needed.

Visually, the headset looks great. It has blue stitching accents across the headband to match the PlayStation 4 accordingly and even the LED lighting is blue to match the blue pulsing light upon start-up as well. These are subtle touches that add to the appeal the headset has overall. It’s the small things like this that help make a headset more desirable. Sure, it’s cosmetic, but tons of us buy different color controllers and other products because of this exact thing. However, we all know comfort and sound quality is what matters most, so let’s get deeper into that.

One of the most important aspects in any headset is always going to be comfort — can the headset can be worn for hours at a time without causing your ears to overheat, be sore, and so forth? When it comes to comfort, the PX4 is exceptional. The over-the-ear portion is very soft and sits perfectly against your head. It doesn’t create too much pressure against your ears and it’s often easy to forget you’re even wearing them. The headset itself is also lightweight, which only adds to the comfort factor while wearing them. I wasn’t really expecting this as my Ear Force PX21s from Turtle Beach felt a bit heavier, so I expected a similar weight from the PX4. Maybe the headband is just built a different way to provide more comfort — I don’t really know. Regardless, they’re comfortable and that’s the most important part.

When it comes to sound quality, the PX4 delivers great clarity and crisp audio to your ears. Whether you’re watching a movie or playing a game online, the built-in Dolby Digital surround sound perfectly compliments the action on the screen. In online multiplayer games the headset is great at picking up where the enemy is coming from and that’s going to give you an advantage over other players who don’t have a similar headset. It also has a game volume slider on the left earpiece that allows you to adjust the volume settings of the actual game sound itself.

The PS4 also comes with a personal slider for voice control volume as well. So, if your friend or teammates are of the loud variety, it’s easy to quiet them down without having to sacrifice the sound quality of the game. This is an awesome feature to have on your headset so it’s something you should definitely require going forward with any headset purchase. The voice quality, like the audio side, is very crisp and sounds perfect. There is no delay and it’s very responsive for a wireless headset.

Surprisingly, the most surprising aspect of the headset is that it has a 15-hour battery life. This is more than sufficient for any gamer and it’s easy to charge overnight while leaving your PlayStation 4 on stand-by. Honestly, it has a better battery life than your DualShock 4, and that’s both sad and impressive.

At $149.99 the PX4 may seem like a pricey headset, but the old saying “you get what you pay for,” is never more true. This headset is worth every penny and is likely your best bet for that price range, including Sony’s first-party PULSE headset. We suggest picking this up from Turtle Beach or through Amazon.